7 Secrets About Confidence We Can Learn from Female Billionaires

Lolly Daskal coaches some of the wealthiest billionaires in the world. What’s her billionaire-making secret? In short, the keys to success lie within.

According to Daskal, it’s not about your specific habits or personality—it’s about how well you know yourself. In some ways, that’s a relief—you don’t have to start getting up at 5 AM to be successful. The downside? There’s no “magic formula” for success. Still, we can learn a lot about confidence from women who have risen to the top of their fields.

Although women are still woefully underrepresented in leadership roles, more are starting to make it to the top. For example, more than 22% of fortune 500 board members were women in 2017, and approximately 5% of fortune 500 CEOs are women as of 2018.

Despite slow progress, more women are succeeding professionally and financially, and some of them are more than happy to share their secrets.

Want to think like an executive? Here are seven confidence-building secrets that you can learn from female billionaires.

1. Identify Your Leadership Gap

No one is perfect. We all have gaps. When it comes to success, it’s important to have a firm understanding of who you are and what you want.

By identifying who you are at your core, you will start to see where the gaps lie. Then, you have to be willing to change. Successful people are always willing to change as needed in order to reach their goals.

2. Commit to Continuous Learning

A huge lesson we can learn from female billionaires is to never stop learning. Women who are in top executive roles understand that it’s impossible to know it all. Everything is constantly shifting and you have to be willing to learn and adapt. Be humble and open to learning at every stage of your career and you’ll just get better and better over time.

3. Do What You Love

It takes a lot of hard work, time, and energy to achieve your long-term goals. If you’re not doing something you’d do even if you weren’t being paid, then it may be time to rethink your career path. Without the passion motivating you, you’ll only be able to go so far and you won’t find fulfillment.

4. Create Your Vision

Most people don’t have much of a vision beyond next Tuesday. They think about what they want to eat or what they want to watch on TV without considering where they’d like to be in 10 years. That kind of mindset doesn’t get you very far. Success requires a long-term vision that will act as a guidepost for your life and career.

If you have no idea what you’d like to be doing in the future, then it’s time to sit down and really think about this question. Create your vision and use it as a driving force to help you strategize and take action.

5. Plan for Success

We only have so many hours and so much energy. If you try to do too much, you’ll end up burning yourself out and have very little progress to show for it. Instead of planning for everything, try planning for success instead.

Prioritizing your activities is key. Many billionaires put their health and happiness first. Beyond this, what can you prioritize to help you find success? Which activities are essential for helping you to reach your ultimate goals and vision? Focus on these and cut out everything else.

6. Strive for Excellence

Although confidence is often more about attitude than skill, that’s no excuse to settle for mediocrity. Yes, you sometimes need to “fake it ‘til you make it,” but you should also strive for excellence in everything you do. Be proud of your work.

It’s important to remember, that striving for excellence is not the same as perfectionism. Perfectionism will keep you from taking action and prevent you from making the big plays that will ultimately lead to your success.

7. Mistakes Aren’t Just Mistakes; They’re Lessons

You have to stop thinking about mistakes as failures if you want to become successful. Mistakes rarely indicate total failure. In fact, they’re actually an effective growth tool. Mistakes become lessons that will help you become better the next time. Pick yourself up, make some adjustments, and try again.

Women Can Rise to the Top

Women make up nearly half of the United States workforce, yet, they often don’t enjoy the same success as their male peers. Cultural expectations and decades of discrimination in the workplace have created a glass ceiling that women have had to push through to enjoy the same kind of success. Fortunately, those expectations are finally starting to fade.

It’s time that more women recognize that they too can make it to the top. With all the incredible female role models who are proving it can be done, women can become inspired to live their dreams and become powerful leaders in their fields. It’s never easy, but by finding what you need within and working relentlessly toward your goals, you can find your version of success.